While I’ve certainly got my favorites, there’s no doubt that an Ottessa Moshfegh novel is always going to scratch a weird, unexpected itch. Here’s my thoughts in the order that I read her books:

My Year Of Rest And Relaxation
So many of us I’m sure would love to sleep a year away, especially right now. But, this woman makes it a reality through the many many MANY sleeping medications that are prescribed by her wacky therapist with a terrible memory. The concept is fun, the main character is super weird and unhinged, and there’s many levels to the story. I can see why people ride so hard for this book, and I’m a big fan as well. Highly recommend for anyone who is tired. Goodnight!

Homesick For Another World
Ottessa Moshfegh has such a strong voice in her characters that finds its way into each and every one of these short stories. I read this with a book club who thought some of these stories blended together because of the overlap in character types, themes, and even tiny sexual details, but it didn’t bother me. It felt more to me like a glimpse into OM’s writing process and how she flushes out different ideas she wants to use. This was a lot of gross people doing gritty things for slimy reasons, and yet I still found it entertaining none the less. I wish there were more protaganists that were women rather than men, which was kinda surprising for OM. But overall, this was unique and fun.

Eileen
I ended up liking this one way more than I expected to, just because it took a minute to take off. The main character is unhappy with her job and her life until a new co-worker becomes the object of her obsession. It’s full of dark humor and a lot of weird social commentary, but the ending is really where this shines. While I liked the movie too, it was severely mis-cast and the fake accents are awful, but also kind of funny in a campy way. Very weird, very fun.

Death In Her Hands
The concept of this really drew me in – an elderly, widowed woman finds a mysterious note alluding to a murder. However, I didn’t love the lack of plot from there. I don’t always mind a book that is mostly thoughts and not a lot of plot, but I just wanted more answers than this story was able to provide. It was interestingly done and still a decent read, but it didn’t hit as hard for me as her other books by a longshot.

Up next: Lapvona

Thanks for reading!